The judicial system revisited

5 May 2009

I had jury duty today, at every opportunity the judicial, and basically every government system goes above, and beyond the call of duty to show what a worthless, antiquated means to an end it truly is.  Colorado law states that persons on probation are eligible to serve.  So I sat wasting away in a room, which would fine and good except, my employer does not think my “civic duty” is an excuse to miss a days work.  All the time spent staring at the wall, nodding off, and awaking to a puddle of drool on my lap means the next few days I have to work late... perfect.  The true beauty is I was just called to hear a case, but of course they are not ready to do anything because its an hour before lunch.  I luckily live 10 minutes from the courthouse, so am home writing.  

What is going to be wonderful, is when I return at 130 and am finally lead into the court where they start figuring out who will actually hear the case etc I am going to say I am on probation, think the system is a joke, and regardless of any evidence put forth they are innocent because jail sucks (though I don’t really believe that last bit).  I will be relieved of my duties, BUT NOT before wasting my entire day.  

How do solve this issue.  Everyone get your heads out of your asses!  I will draw a comparison...  You show up to work, as an electrician but there are no jobs just waiting on an “ok”.  After a few hours your boss says we have the job, go to the house, check it out.  You go, and waste more time looking at a framed home, but there are no supplies, so you can’t do anything.  You wait around for the supplies, when they finally come thy gave you the wrong order, and there is nothing you can use.  The day is over you got nothing done.  Your boss would not stay in business very long if he had to pay guys to sit and wait, right?

How do we fix the system?  Run it like a business with a purpose. You call the night before and they say you have been assigned to room 400 (as opposed to sitting and waiting to see if you will be drawn).  This would delay cases a day but that could be figured out beforehand, like the afternoon before as opposed to that morning.  Prior to this you filled out a questionnaire in which you say I am a racist, a sexist a penguin, and a animal lover, assuring you will not be chosen.  Those who actually believe in the system go in, the court is ready to go, and off to the races.  

The amount of time, man power, energy, that is wasted ASTOUNDS me!  They have a person sitting up front just waiting to call juror numbers... this is a full time job.  The computer randomly picks the numbers, she just says “1310” and waits for someone to say “here”.  I am sure she makes as much if not more than myself.  Walking to the bathroom there are offices filled with people, and officers WAITING for stuff to do, I went to the bathroom 3 times, and all three times there were 4 officers sitting on ass waiting to move a prisoner.... Do they get paid by the prisoner? NO! They are pulling a full salary and sitting on ass.  

Ok... for those of you who want to rant and rave about how cops are need etc, and put their lives on the line etc before you say a word my father was a cop for over 30 years.  I have thousands of stories where he just like every other cop sat on ass doing nothing, Where he was a cop there were SEVERAL people who would bring portable DVD players into work so while doing radar they could watch movies.  That is but a snowflake on the tip of an iceberg folks.  For every officer killed in the line of duty there are hundreds who just collect a good days pay.  

All the guards in jail, walked around zapped a little thing on the cell to prove they were there, and went into their little shelter and played on the computer.  They would have to give us are lunch and tell us to go back to our cells at specific times.  No one fought since it was not worth losing your good time, and those who did end up fighting, the guards were never around at the time.  Mind you this is not San Quentin, BUT they are pulling a full salary and did very little work.  The point being, if I walked around, and played on my phone for 15 minutes at work I would be fired.   

I think a lot of good reform could come to government if they saw the other side of things, how the poor work, and live.  How aggravating it is to call in regards to do anything, and never hearing anything back.  What it is like to be a poor slob who has to work around schedules of offices open from 8-12 closed for an hour lunch and then open 1-4.  I have NEVER had a job with a one hour lunch, my current job we get a single 20 minute break.   I have a good job, but I think all government offices should really be run like business’ and not like the fat sloth it has become wasting everyone’s time and energy.  I now have to work 10 hours the rest of the week to keep from getting fired, because a judge and some lawyers took 3 hours to decide they needed a jury, decided a 2 hour lunch was needed.                       

Jury Selection
First 18 were selected told a bunch of stuff etc reasonable doubt and so forth.  12 were then picked to sit, and a little questionnaire goes around that you read, Name, Age, job etc, any relatives in law enforcement Ding, Ding, Ding.  They went through the 12 of us, and then the DA has a chance to talk and ask questions.  Asked me about my dad, how many cops I knew etc.  I made a point to toss my run in with the law, which he was keen about since I was prosecuted by the Boulder DA.  At this point I knew I was out.  The defense attorney asked me 20 questions in regards to my father, etc.  I was not selected but lost an entire day due to this entire thing.

 I knew I would get out of it if it was a criminal case, or due to my father it was a matter of what time I was going home.  All in all I think it was a cool experience but the amount of time and energy wasted astounds me.  My disqualification could have easily been weeded out hours earlier, as well as a women who is breast feeding a child and has to pump at certain times of the day, the woman who was half deaf, or the guy with a flight to Chicago this evening.  These things all could be seen and addressed in the morning, or prior to arriving this morning,  With all of the information at everyone’s finger tips you would think triggers would be set off prior to the day of the case.  The computer system knew I was a resident of Denver County, can it not cross reference with cases?  Family ties?  With the case of the hard of hearing woman, she has gone through this the last 3 years, and every time dismissed due to her hearing and fear she might miss key points.  Why can this not be stored so she is not burdened with showing up again, since her hearing is not coming back.  I was arrested 6 months ago, no mater how impartial you view it, that has bearing.  The DA asked me have you ever heard of a cop making a mistake, I said “yes, they are human.” He asked would I be completely impartial, and I responded “I would like to think so, but being through the system I have my doubts.”

When I went to court I was in shackles, and a orange jumpsuit, how would ANYONE EVER be presumed innocent in such a garb?  My case did not go to jury, but something has to be said that while giving my side of the story I was shackled, looking a little rough from 4 days in jail, and had a guard standing behind me.  Judges, cops, lawyers are all human and all these things click for them, the idea of entering as an equal and innocent is ludicrous,  In this case the defendant had a suit on, was well dressed, and looked clean cut.  I thought by going straight to trial and getting it over with was a better way than wasting the courts time, I would beg to differ now.  I should have waited and gotten a suit like O.J.’s because that tailor makes a fine looking set of threads.